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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Greetings on this happy day for all Catholics in Indiana!
SAINT Theodore Guerin… Pray for us! Unless you are attending
Mass on Saturday evening this weekend, by the time you read
this, Indiana will have our own, recognized saint. This is a
great day for all the Church in Indiana! This morning, at 10:00
AM Rome time (4:00 AM our time) a Faith-filled sister who came
to our state when it was a considerably rougher place to live,
was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. St. Theodore Guerin now
becomes one of those most beautiful examples for all of us, of
what it means to follow Christ.
Much has been said and written in the last few weeks
about Saint Theodore Guerin’s coming to Indiana and her very
negative experience with the Bishop of Vincennes after she got
here. It was not an easy life for our new Saint. And what a
lesson her life has for all of us! Saint Theodore Guerin came
to Indiana because nobody else would. She had already declined
the assignment at least once. Leaving what is known and
comfortable is not something that anyone wants to do, including
saints. But St. Theodore Guerin recognized the need and knew
that if she didn’t step up and agree to go, her Order’s mission
effort in Indiana would most likely collapse. How many times do
ALL of us have to do things, not because we want to, not because
we’re going to get something out of the deal, and not because
something is easy or comfortable, but only because we have to do
it in order for it to happen. It is those times in our life
when we find out who we really are and what really is most
important to us. Saint Theodore Guerin learned to love Indiana
during the twenty years that she worked here. Her conflicts
with the Bishop of Vincennes certainly didn’t make her work in
Indiana any easier. This experience of our new Saint also has a
great lesson for all of us about perseverance, about real Faith,
and about “sticking to our guns” in the face of adversity. It
wasn’t easy for Saint Theodore Guerin to keep going, and the
animosity of the bishop made it even harder. Difficulties and
conflicts in the Church are worse than any other kind of
conflict in our lives because our Faith and our Church are so
important to us all.
So what happens when we’re all supposed to be on the same team,
and we find our greatest source of difficulty from within the
Church itself? While this has never happened to many people, I
suspect that it has happened to more of us than we realize. We
still have to persevere. God is always in charge, especially of
the Church. As Saint Theodore Guerin found when the Bishop that
she had the problems with died, God has a remarkable way of
making sure that things go HIS way, especially in the Church.
We need to always trust in that even when we have conflicts and
disappointments with our Church. St. Theodore Guerin is a
perfect example of holiness in exactly many of the same
challenges that all of us face today.
Of course, the Church is very careful to say that our new
Saint is the first “recognized” Saint from Indiana. Certainly
there are many other souls from our state who are at home with
God in Heaven, that we won’t know about until we get there.
Still, it is so nice that one “of our own” now joins the
official list that the Vatican keeps. Hopefully, Blessed
Theodore Guerin is just the first of many recognized saints from
Indiana. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had as many saints in the
Litany of the Saints as Italy does? Italy had a big head start
on us. But if you and I are really following Jesus, I’m betting
that we could catch up in the next thousand years or so. What
do you think? Could we try it?
This is a great day! Our thoughts and prayers are with
Fr. Dale and the group attending the canonization in Rome.
Please keep them in your prayers for a safe trip.
The Women’s Christ Renews His Parish weekend is also
going on this weekend. Let us keep all of the ladies from Teams
12 & 13 in our prayers all weekend long. We are so grateful for
all of the good that God does through these renewal weekends!
This is also our last weekend to stop by the tables and
make our pledge to our “As A Family…We Build God’s Kingdom”
campaign. Every family has a pledge card. Every pledge card
must be filled out by the time this all over. Please do what
YOU can to help our Parish family out. Everybody can give
something. Please fill out your card today!
God bless you! Enjoy this great weekend!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
People with humility don’t think less of
themselves. They think about themselves less.
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